Monday, May 4, 2009

Donato "Danny" Angiulo, convicted New England Mafia racketeer, has died at the age of 86, according to reports by theBoston Globeand the Boston Herald.

Angiulo (left) died Sunday night at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a long illness. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Dello Russo Funeral Home in Medford, Massachusetts, Angiulo's hometown. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Friday, May 8, 11 a.m., at St. Leonard Church in Boston's North End.

Angiulo, once a caporegime in New England's crime family, served 11 years in prison after a 1986 conviction for racketeering, gambling and loansharking. Upon his release from prison in 1997, some wondered if he would take control of what remained of the Patriarca crime family, then decimated by successful prosecutions. Donato Angiulo's brother, Gennaro Angiulo, once served as underboss of the crime family. Gennaro also was sentenced to a long prison term in 1986. He was paroled in 2007 and is now 90 years old.

An electronic listening device installed in the crime family's North End headquarters in 1981 gathered evidence of Angiulo illegal activities. Two other brothers, Francesco and Michele, were also convicted of participating in those activities.

The two men, partners as detectives on the New York Police force, had been sharing a prison cell, locked down 23 hours a day. Caracappa, 67, recently was moved to Victorville Penitentiary in California. He had asked for a prison assignment on the East Coast. Eppolito, 60, is awaiting a placement decision from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.